In parallel, we subsequently learned about the ongoing research programme at Bristol, around ELLI, led by Ruth Deakin Crick. Now we’re exploring ways to build on the language for learning that is part of the school’s life, and introduce ELLI as a way of opening up conversations around learning power at the individual pupil level. An initial step has been a simple exercise in which we mapped the BLP “learning muscles” which our staff and students are now familiar with, onto the ELLI spidergram generated from the self-report web questionnaire hosted by Vital Partnerships. We might add in the icons for learning muscles around the spidergram to add more visual engagement as well, similar to the way in which the ELLI team have engaged young people in diverse cultures through the use of the Simpsons characters, and indigenous Australian animals.

Mapping BLP learning muscles onto the ELLI spidergram

The note in the middle reflects the idea that we might audit the school as a whole on its learning power, not just students. We thought we’d share this with you as we embark on this next phase of the journey 🙂